Apple's mobileme turns iPhone into iBerry

July 16, 2008

Mobileme pushes email to your iPhone, but be careful what you wish for.

Formerly known as .Mac, mobileme has been labelled "Exchange for the rest of us". It can push email, contacts and calendar details to your iPhone and keep the iPhone in sync with Microsoft Outlook on a PC or Mail, Address Book and iCal on a Mac. The service, which costs $AU119 per year, also lets you access your email, calendar, contacts and photos online along with 20 GB of storage space.

This means you can have new email instantly sent to your iPhone, like a Blackberry or Microsoft Exchange service, rather than waiting for your phone to check your inbox. You can also schedule the phone to automatically check non-push IMAP or POP3 email services every 15, 30 or 60 minutes, or else manually.

Push email services have historically been focused at businesses users, but do you really want to be notified whenever you receive a personal email?

Obviously there are times when personal push email would be handy. There are a few people for whom you'd like immediate notification when their email arrives, but what about everyone else? Do you want to hear instantly from your mates who like to send rude limericks, or those newbie friends who naively forward hoaxes to everyone they know? How about from the spammers trying to sell you v14gr4 and the scammers asking for your help to smuggle Iraqi gold?

What you really need is a way to filter your inbox and only push emails from people you know. Of course this sort of defeats the purpose of push email. Anyway, mobileme doesn't seem to offer server-side filtering - which is one of the features I really like about my current email provider Fastmail. Another option is to use separate email addresses for your personal push and non-push email, but life is complicated enough without emergency and non-emergency personal email addresses.

Push email can be an important business tool and I've got no gripe with Blackberry and Exchange users who need to stay up-to-date when away from their desks. Even so, I don't think I'd want to inflict push email on my personal life. Outside work hours I want to control my inbox, not have it control me.

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Recent comments

Jesper

July 16, 2008

12:08 PM

Well this new cloud will only push from your application every 15 min.
So nothing I can use. Just another hype Apple has put on us disappointed iPhone users.
I have no idea why every one is helping hyping Apple when Apple will not even help thousands of users getting copy past.
Apple is saying it is not high on there priority list, yet there is so many posts in there own forum re copy past.
I think it is time for reporters to really take a look at Apple. Is it really that good ?

stu

July 16, 2008

01:45 PM

just create a new email address which will push to the iphone. and then set-up a rule in your normal email inbox to forward specific email addresses to your new email. that should take about 10 minutes in total.

Good idea, I'll give that a try.
Adam

Sillybugger

July 16, 2008

02:59 PM

Hopefully. I hate blackberrys 'cause you end up having to carry your personal phone, an iphone and the blackberry when you're out and about. I turned down the offer of carrying one for work about 2 years ago. I now have an iphone and the IT guys won't let me access the network or whatever it is you IT guys call it.

Venets

July 16, 2008

03:05 PM

Is it really that good ?

Yes.

Ian

July 16, 2008

03:42 PM

Whilst I have not tested it myself, there apparently is a hack for push frequency, which enables push every minute.

As for the lack of copy/paste between apps on the iPhone - well I agree that Apple have dropped the ball with such a core functionality.

Anonymous

July 16, 2008

04:25 PM

can u find better? U must be on of those ppl that just bag good things when it doesn't suit your need.. Loser

Niko

July 16, 2008

04:46 PM

Mobileme is "Exchange for the rest of us" but what it doesn't tell you in the above post is that you need to have a .mac email account. What means that you cant use your existing work email account or any other email account that you may have set up you must use a new email that gets set up for you.

Not a good option if you work on the road, i might just stick with my big chunky Blackberry that allows me to view 10 different email accounts at any time and so what if it doesn't look as cool as your iphone at least at will work the way i want it and not the way Mac want it to work.

David

July 16, 2008

09:39 PM

The debate on copy and paste is not a reason to hold blackberry over iPhone. Nothing is perfect you need to asses the whole user experience to judge any device. iPhone wins easly, apple don't make good products because they have all the features, they are good because the features there work really well and are a pleasure to use.

Pete

July 17, 2008

08:05 AM

@Niko
Not true. You need at mobileme acount, which includes a .me email address, but push email also works for other email addresses.

It will also do push with Exchange, but it can't turn a non-push service into true push. Yahoo! have set-up a push service for the iPhone, but it's a bit flaky.
Adam.

@Jesper
If you read the article, you would see that 15min is how often it will check for NON-push email accounts. Push email is instantaneous.

AK

July 17, 2008

08:16 AM

Posted by: Jesper on July 16, 2008 12:08 PM

You're right. Apple has to fix their toy first before it wants to grow up and be a Berry or a Nokia.

Just wait over the next few weeks as thousands will find their purdey little baby can't do what even normal phones do like Bluetooth file transfer, MMS etc...

Goes to say... one must learn to walk first before trying to run. ;)

steve

July 17, 2008

09:26 AM

I think it is time for reporters to really take a look at Apple. Is it really that good ?

Posted by: Jesper on July 16, 2008 12:08 PM

They sure do a good job of creating hype. That's all though.

Any time someone dares write something negative (or even balanced) about Apple they cop a massive flaming from the Apple zealots. I've copped a few on this blog. You just can't win.

The SMH Online tends to be a little pro-Apple, but there are negative stories as well;

@Pete
NOT TRUE... you can not use your existing work email account!!! It is push me but only for your mobileme email account which is a .mac email account!!! the only way you can receive your work email is if you forward your email to the .mac account but when you reply it will be from your .mac account. Mobileme is more of a personal email exchange server great for keeping in touch with friends and family but not a business solution.

iCat

July 17, 2008

01:56 PM

I have got hold of one of these 'hyped' gadgets and fell in love with it sooner than I though I do.

All of those who make a fuss about lack of features like copy and paste, or bluetooth file transfer, are ignoring the fact that a device is judged by its overall usability, not ticks in a feature list table.
Those feature list tables are for magazine publishers to make a living of.

Think about what you need from a mobile device, and you will find that most people would get more than they need from an iPhone today (judged by the number of sales made in a few days).

Sure some people may want features not present in current model. they can buy other models from other brands, or wait another year to get the next iPhone...

Canuckie

July 17, 2008

08:49 PM

Top of the morn to you fellow posters in L'Australie.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20080712/DETOX12/TPTravel/
Hello my poster name is Canuckie (not Canucky - I would like to find out who in the internet's world that is that make the fun of me) and I am the CrackBerry -O- Holic.
I am to take the 12 step's program to get off the glue that is make me stick my life to these marvelous wired invention like the fly to that kind of paper that they stick to until they are dead, or something.
I have stop all conversation face to face.
I have become the life of the virtual world party where I get the flip off from the many young kid around here when I attack their sites after I have been accepted as their friend under the made up name but they accept me and then cut me off when I get to the issues.
I will stay with this program untill I get the code that is the 6 9s.
I will make the amend to the made up people that I have the habit of poking them with the fun remark but maybe I won't actually as this blog there is never anyone comes back after they do their own unload of thought most time.
I am to look in to becoming the Borg.
I will mind meld with my bluetooth and my BlackBerry II and put the solar's panel on my bald head and recgharge a battery's pack not just in the sun's ray but also by the light of the Full Moon.
I used to be the coyotee but I'm all right Nooowooooooo.
This humidity is makeing us all seem like that.

"Every 15 mins"? No. Push email is instantaneous. Both iPhone and BB can experience delays in pushing email (I've seen BB delays of two hours!).
For a business with their own exchange server, setting up push email is simpler for iPhone - you do not need a "BES server" (additional one-time outlay of about $15k).
I have all the BB users in the office drooling...
As said before, it IS that good!

Canuckie

July 19, 2008

10:30 PM

To Ron Lombardo on July 19, 2008 1:30 AM
Ron Lombardo you state:
As said before, it IS that good!

You can through some kind of the aps make that look like this (I know as my many friend at the Flog are the best at making the blog's comment. And that Ben Willing and his crew let the hackers take complete contol of the graphics and that was neat I am glad I got to see it.)

As said before, it is that good!
And I can even do this if Adam will let it through

Oh PS My friend who beat us all and get the Highscools adult diploma has the dog breeding where he is hoping to seel them online.
Here is what his ad says online at Kageegee:
"4 Sale Amerkin Boll Dogs"
And they drool like you say your co-workers does.
Well that is not completely true as the pups are not even to be born yet.

André

July 20, 2008

12:13 AM

@Adam: I disagree when you say that SMH Online is pro-Apple. I've seen heaps of anti-Apple stories, some of them questionable at best. One of the best specimens was a story that used iPod scratching as an example of past problems with Apple products. The article also used forum posts as legitimate sources. Since when were random people posting on forums counted as real sources? The journalist could have posted the comments there himself, for all we know.

As for MobileMe, I reckon it's brilliant. What other service offers everything MobileMe does for such a cheap price? Everyone seems to be focusing on the email aspect. MobileMe also offers push contacts and calendars for ALL your devices, not just your phone. On top of that, it offers web hosting, online disk space, online desktop-class apps and great photo galleries.

And is Apple that good? It is. BlackBerries are for losers. Tiny screens, clunky plastic keys, horrible user interfaces and steep price tags are bundled. True, Apple have great marketing. But they really do have the products to back the marketing up. Tall poppy syndrome, anyone?

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Aussies love their gadgets. Mobiles phones, MP3 players, notebooks, GPS, if you can carry it, we’ll buy it. Gadget guru Adam Turner embraces the way of the road warrior, hitting the open highway in search of all things mobile.